#jay warren

That cover (and the phrase “Lipstick Against Lipstick”) are both deeply misleading - Myrna, the Lesbian who takes Ellie into the twilight world, is super butch, and resembles “an effeminate boy.” (18)

     I should have hated this book, but I didn’t. It was written by a man, and the main character, Ellie, decides at the end that maybe she really is straight after all. Or, if you’re me, you can interpret the ending as a gay man and a bisexual woman deciding to enter into a lavender marriage as protection from their homophobic small town, but that was almost certainly not the author’s intention. Many of the lesbians in the novel are predatory, promiscuous, or alcoholics. Despite this, it was a surprisingly fun novel. The descriptions of the town’s gay scene were a lot of fun, and most of the Lesbians wear great outfits. It was kind of awful, but at least it was fun to read, which is more than I can say for any of the other lesbian-sleaze-for-men novels I’ve read so far.